


Entertaining

by Schuyler



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-04
Updated: 2007-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-03 15:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4106290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schuyler/pseuds/Schuyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm gripped by this HP-WWII symbolism, which is probably why this turned out like it did. Inspired by the Pepperidge Farm Entertaining Cookie Collection.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Entertaining

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gripped by this HP-WWII symbolism, which is probably why this turned out like it did. Inspired by the Pepperidge Farm Entertaining Cookie Collection.

_Chocolate Pirouette_  
  
All of the Chocolate Pirouttes are missing from the Entertaining Cookie Collection. Ron suspects Hermione, but she's snapping her purse shut and talking at him. "Don't burn the house down."  
  
"I make no promises." She kisses his cheek and he stops her, slides an arm around her waist and pulls her in for a proper one. She smiles sideways when it's done and then heads briskly for the door.  
  
She's gone before he remembers to ask about his cookies.  
  
The rest of the box goes on a plate in the living room. Hermione's gone to her parents' for the weekend and his schoolmates are coming for the evening. Male bonding etc.  
  
  
  
_Bordeaux_  
  
Harry arrives first, comes through the floo because taking his broom often gets him followed.  
  
He had a breakdown four months after the war was over, sitting on Ron and Hermione's sofa. It wasn't about the horrors of war or killing Voldemort or anything, that was more a culmination of a life's preparation. It was the celebrity, having people ask for his autograph in the Alley, reading about himself every day in the Daily Prophet, hearing witches twitter when he walked past. He'd gone from being nobody to being the Hero of Our Time. He just wanted to be boring and normal like Ron and Hermione. Hermione blathered on about WWII heroes while Ron took a few deep breaths.  
  
  
  
_Chessmen_  
  
Neville comes second and Dean and Seamus after that. Ron makes dinner and it isn't terrible. A recipe from his Mum. They talk about how they're doing, but trivial things. Seamus told him once that a man has to have at least two strong drinks before he can talk about war and two more before he can talk about his feelings. So Ron pours the first round.  
  
They see each other all the time. Ron went to Harry's for dinner two nights ago. But these times are special, cathartic. From when they would sit on the floor of the dormitory and eat the care package cookies from Seamus' American aunt, fighting over who got the Milanos and never claiming the Brussels, protecting their stash before they settled in. They would talk then about girls who had caught their eye or how they had done on the last History of Magic essay, later about how brave they would be and how glorious their victory would be. The mood has changed now.  
  
  
  
_Salzburg_  
  
When they sit in the living room after dinner, with their second and third drinks, they look like ordinary men. But they all saw action, and their scars are under their clothes. Neville has a row of holes in one arm, deep ones, from a thorny vine that held him for two days. The medi-wizards could have made them disappear but he said he needed a reminder. They all did. Seamus has a burn mark across his chest, Dean has an arc-shaped scar the whole length of his back and Harry's missing a piece of his left calf. Ron's own darling Hermione inflicted his his solitary war wound, a stab to the shoulder, while under a bout of Imperio. Muggle soldiers would get a Victoria Cross. They got a diploma.  
  
  
  
_Lisbon_  
  
There's something about Dean and Seamus. They always sit beside each other, they have an easy grace at table, passing things back and forth. The way Seamus took the last half of Dean's roll and Dean merely passed the butter mid-sentence. They clink their glasses together before every fresh drink and, with three in them now, Seamus leans a little indolently against Dean's side.  
  
Ron doesn't think Harry notices, but Neville smiles at him when they catch each other looking.  
  
  
  
_Milano_  
  
There was a time when Neville wouldn't have smiled, when he made any excuse to get out of being in a room with even Ron and Hermione. But now he smiles all the time, he's hardly ever around, and he gets a dreamy smile sometimes. Hermione heard that Neville's seeing someone new. Ron thinks maybe Neville's just got a hobby. But it's all sort of unusual.  
  
Neville's got a secret.  
  
  
  
_Brussels_  
  
They fall asleep in their clothes in the living room, like always, Neville curled up in an armchair, Harry on the loveseat, Dean and Seamus too close together on the couch, Ron on the hearthrug. They used to sleep with the curtains open, before they left school, and then together on the floor in Harry's apartment, because it felt a little like before. And sometimes, they still need the space for this, to hear each other breathe and crack jokes in the morning about what said in his sleep.  
  
The Brussels cookies, hard and stale, will sit out uneaten overnight, and it will be just like before.  



End file.
